Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 20:32:26 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Walter Ellison Subject: Re: Skunkhead MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have no better idea than Les about what bird belongs to the name "pee-wit twitter", woodcock seems very apt. For what it's worth "peewit" is the the British countryman's name for the Lapwing another broad-winged shorebird, albeit much larger. It is also worth noting that "chicken hawk" is a pretty broad appellation for any old hawk that will snatch one of your exposed barnyard fowl. Besides being given to the red-tail it was also justly applied to Cooper's Hawk and goshawk, and less justifiably to Northern Harrier (which is why we don't use the European name Hen Harrier here I'd guess). A couple of other alternative names for another bird of prey are "devil owl" and "cat owl" for the Great Horned Owl. All this discussion of alternative bird names called to mind the "Official" Cape May checklist once published in the CMBO newsletter/journal by Pete Dunne. Among some of the more memorable names: Common Grackle was "lesser corn-buzzard", and the raven was the "imperial corn-buzzard", the Tree Swallow was a "Merlin snack", Mute Swans were "muke squawms", Snowy and Great Egrets were "snegs" and "gregs", starlings were either "dirt martins" or "swill warblers", and House Sparrows became "Churchill's warblers". Walter Ellison MD Atlas Coordinator 104 Maple Ave #1 Chestertown, MD 21620 410-778-9568 rossgull@crosslink.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Les Roslund" To: Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 11:11 AM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Skunkhead > I believe the "Pee-wit Twitters" name I mentioned earlier was referring to > Woodcock, and is taken from the sounds of their display flight. If someone > knows better, I would welcome the suggestions. > > Les Roslund/Talbot MOS Hotline > Lroslund@bluecrab.org > Talbot County > Easton, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================